That's the limit: 70mph maximum looks set to stay

The Government looks set to scrap plans to raise the UK motorway speed limit to 80mph.

Giving a clear indication that the 70mph maximum seems likely to remain in place, recently-appointed Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said safety on the roads was his primary concern, adding: "Speed does kill".

His comments come as the Government is currently deciding whether to give the speed limit increase the go-ahead - an idea first proposed by McLoughlin's predecessor Philip Hammond.

"What's very important is that we never lose sight of the issue of safety on our roads," McLoughlin told the Murnaghan programme on Sky News.

"First and foremost in my mind will be road safety, but I will look at the evidence - there's a consultation taking place on that.

"But nothing will detract me from what is safe overall, and road safety and our record on road safety has to be paramount in my mind.

"What we have to have in our mind is that speed does kill and most of the very serious accidents that take place on our roads involve people disobeying the speed limits."

"We look forward to hearing more from the new transport ministers on how they will usher in a better era for safety on roads and help to counter the recent increase in casualties."

Speaking exclusively to Autoblog, the Institute of Advanced Motorists' director of policy, Neil Greig, said more work should be done in cutting the number of road deaths - which rose for the first time in five years in 2011.

He added: "There was never any conclusive evidence that road safety, the environment or the economy would benefit from an increase in the motorway speed limit.

"The government's top priority must now be ensuring that last year's surprise increase in deaths on the UK's roads does not become a trend."

Do you want to see the speed limit raised to 80mph? Let us know by posting your comments below.

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jcwconsult

This is a very unfortunate decision. Posting 80 mph on most Motorways would improve safety and reduce the total fatalities in the UK. The 85th percentile speed on Motorways is about 79 mph per DfT data. Engineers and students of this issue know that posting the speed limit at the 85th percentile speed of free flowing traffic under good conditions almost always results in the smoothest and safest traffic flow with the fewest accidents. In addition, making today’s normal travel speeds on Motorways of 75 to 80 mph be legal would draw more traffic off the A and B roads and onto the Motorways where the fatality rate per mile traveled is two to four times lower.

This was a terrible and anti-safety decision.

James C. Walker, National Motorists Association (USA), http://www.motorists.org, Ann Arbor, Michigan USA (frequent visitor to Britain to see family in West Yorkshire)

I'm not sure if the death rate on the German autobahns is any higher than it is on our motorways. They have no speed limit but a very active police force that monitors bad behaviour when driving. Like most people I make my share of mistakes when driving, I am not perfect, but the actions of a small number of people who are clearly not mentally suited to the demands of driving make our roads a dangerous place to be on occasions. The police should abandon speed traps in favour of active policeing of our roads and pulling people over for being just plain stupid.

Articles like this always trigger the tired old comments like - 'speed kills'- and the equally silly - ' Its not speed - its the impact that kills'. More sensible ones observe that its usually bad driving.However, very few people are aware that motorway deaths are quite low as a % of driver miles when compared with other roads with much lower speed limits. And that police investigations into road deaths report that only a low % of those are caused by excess speed as the sole cause. As such, it seems to me that any focus on safety should be on changing driving activities and not on simply tinkering with speed limits.As many people know, there are thousands of drivers on motorways who think that its smart to undertake and weave between lanes at speed as they rush to their 'important' business meetings. Police action to pull them over and have a word in their shell likes would be a huge step forward in a safety drive.

the sensible option would be to apply an 80mph limit on two or three motorways for a trial period and let the statistics speak for themselves. Bunching at 70mph can be just as dangerous as allowing say another 10mph for faster traffic to disengage.

It's not the speed limit that needs attention it's the morons who hog th middle and outer lanes causing traffic to back up behind them, more needs to be done about this, it's quite clear in the highway code those lanes are for over taking not travelling. Motorway driving should be tested not just allowed.

Quite correct, lane discipline is very poor in the UK. In France (Where most motorways have a 130 km speed limit in dry weather - about 80 mph) drivers keep to nearside lanes apart from overtaking, and therefore even twin lane dual carriageways work really well, and traffic is free moving

A lot of people already drive way above the 70 limit on motorways and as long as it is done responsibly it causes no problem, what is a problem is people travelling too close together which seems to happen more when some drivers are actually going too slowly, for what ever reason. The perfect example of the double edged sword of just applying speed restrictions as the answer to everything is the tailgating that I constantly witness going on between Lorries and sometimes between Lorries and cars which I find much more potentially dangerous than being overtaken by somebody who is driving at more than our current speed limit.

YES, YES, YES!!! well said, jtthunderbird54, It IS the NUTS behind the steering wheels which need clamping down. So its not ok to kill a few more, if 80 mph will, but it is perfectly ok to kill a few less at 70 mph? Never mind the fact that there are more killings from getting out of bed and falling down the stairs, if it is morally wrong not to prevent killings, lets do the right thing and have a blanket 20 mph on all roads at all times. To all the cries of 'that won't stop the killings' , lets turn all the roads over to the railways then and see if that improves road safety!!

Just travel at 70mph and watch the traffic stream past at a much higher speed.I remember the arrival of average speed cameras in Cornwall about three years ago,it had an amazing effect ,all the traffic slowed down it was quite odd !

Yes the limit should be increased to at least 80 mph,as most people on the motorways are travelling at that speed or more for most of the time on their weekday journeys.The only time the speed limit is observed is when the police are around or there are cameras present. I do not like the adage" that speed kills",it is more often the case tiredness,or dangerous driving or driving while under the influence of drink or drugs causes more accidents.There are no published statistics that prove speed kills,crashing however can kill.Formula one races involve drivers travelling at speeds in excess of 200 miles an hour yet seldom is there a fatality.The Germans do not think that speed is a problem as most of their motorways(autobans) are un restricted.For some reason all British governments like a 70 mph speed limit and i cannot understand why!

A considerable amount of accident which do occur on the autobans are from drivers who are accustomed to a speed limit and don't know what speed to drive at, after you remove those statistics and examine only those drivers who are familiar with unrestricted roads you find them considerably safer than ours.

Hurrah - this is a victory for common sense. I cannot, for one minute, imagine what the buffoon who thought it would be a good idea to increase the maximum speed limit on motorways to 80 mph was thinking about.